Epress.am News from Armenia
All five forensic examinations of three-and-a-half-year-old Artashes Sedrakyan confirm that the child died because of medical errors and omissions, but no one is accused, no one has been punished, Monica Margaryan, representing the child's father, Sayad Sedrakyan (pictured), informed Epress.am on Monday.
The attorney appealed to the Court of Appeals today to overturn a decision to stop the criminal prosecution of Dr. Armenuhi Harutyunyan of Armavir Medical Center. The case against the doctor was already quashed once on grounds of her good character. Later, then RA General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan reversed the decision to quash the case, but it was quashed again. The investigation substantiated that though the child's death was a result of medical error, it was due to the lack of appropriate equipment at the medical facility.
Sayat Sedrakyan informed Epress.am that the incident occurred two years ago, though a criminal case was launched only six months later. However, no charges were filed against either the doctor who admitted the child, Dr. Harutyunyan, or the doctor who moved the child from Armavir to Yerevan by ambulance, Dr. Anna Arushanyan. Only the director of the Armavir Medical Center, Nshan Gevorgyan, was indicted, but later, the prosecutor withdrew the charges.
The child's parents continue to fight to overturn these decisions of the investigation, only after which the case can go to court. According to the child's father, on Dec. 30, 2011, the child only had a cold, and he was taken to the hospital on the same day. "The admitting doctor, Armenuhi Harutyunyan, said everything is normal; the child will be discharged in the morning. She said, if we lived closer, she would allow us to take the child home right now. They kept him for 13 hours, made him worse, and in the morning, the child's condition was so bad that they moved him [to Yerevan]," he said.
The boy was diagnosed with first- to second-degree laryngotracheitis, but in the morning the disease had reached the life-threatening third-degree. Since the hospital didn't have the necessary resuscitation equipment, it was decided to move the child to the Surb Astvatsamayr ("Holy Mother of God") Medical Center, but the medical center didn't send a vehicle and the child was moved in a vehicle that didn't have the necessary equipment. A few days later, Artashes died. It later emerged that Armavir Medical Center had no right to contact Surb Astvatsamayr Medical Center because in such cases the former must contact the adjoining children's hospital, Arabkir Medical Center.
"The examination confirms that in such cases a child cannot be moved when his illness has reached the third-degree level. But he could've been saved if he was moved [when his illness was] at the second-degree level. Although the hospital didn’t have the necessary equipment and a resuscitation department, Harutyunyan didn’t make the decision to move [the child]; that decision was made by the next doctor on duty. Basically, if they had intervened earlier, the child could've been saved," said Sedrakyan.
Sedrakyan also appealed to the Ministry of Healthcare, to inquire whether it will take any action to punish the doctors. He was told that the Armavir Medical Center falls under the jurisdiction of the Armavir regional administration and so, such questions should be directed to the provincial authorities. The Armavir administration, however, informed Sedrakyan that the doctors' fault must be proven in the scope of a criminal case, and only then will the doctors be punished.
Thus, the case of the child's death has not gone to court and his parents have been fighting for 2 years to overturn the decisions of the investigative body. Epress.am staff contacted the public relations department of the Ministry of Healthcare but was told to take up the matter with the Armavir District Court of First Instance. Ministry staff also refused to answer the question about doctors' qualifications: "Since a criminal case has been launched and the case has entered the legal domain, we are not authorized to say anything."
Both the child's father and his attorney have confirmed that they will exhaust all their options in the domestic courts and if the final ruling is not in their favor, they will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.